For an American man with traditional beliefs living in New England or for that matter anywhere in the Northeast is depressing. In an earlier post I described it as living behind enemy lines or in occupied territory. So, for a long time I’ve been contemplating a move. Much is linked to employment, of course. But equally important is ending up in a place that maximizes the improvement in quality of life. I did a search and found a 2016 survey that listed the top ten conservative states.

Wyoming +35

North Dakota +31

Mississippi +31

Oklahoma +30

Alabama +30

Arkansas +28

Idaho +28

Louisiana +27

Montana +26

Utah +26

Tennessee +26

In order to narrow the search, I added the climate requirements to the mix. Living in New England has hammered home the disadvantages of living in an area that has frequent and deep snowfalls. And in general, very cold climates are a definite negative selection factor for me. That eliminated Wyoming, North Dakota and Montana. And while not completely eliminated I give lesser preference to extremely hot, humid areas that are also prone to hurricanes. Until further consideration, let’s put aside Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. That leaves Oklahoma, Arkansas, Idaho, Utah and Tennessee. Five seems like a manageable number of choices. Generally speaking, that gives me two southeastern choices, two western choices and one somewhere in the middle.

This is a very rudimentary beginning to my search but it seems to be moving me off the mark pretty quickly. I was interested in getting some feedback from the OCF audience to help evaluate these five states or any other candidates that maybe I should add to the list. I intend to make this an ongoing process and I’ll return back to folks here to get additional information if it exists.

And just to make sure it doesn’t get buried I’m giving it a category of its own and a spot on the front page.

American Greatness is gonna publish a new post of mine on their site. I’m very excited to be in some pretty remarkable company. Michael Anton, Angelo Codevilla and Victor Davis Hanson wrote essays last year that summed up where I felt I was in the political world. I am thrilled that I’ll have the chance to add my own humble words to those of much abler writers. I’ve been told it’ll appear on Friday. * And the byline will of course be “photog.” It’s basically my take on what it’s like to be a “red-pilled normie.” Or as I jokingly paraphrase Gerry Rafferty, “Cucks to the left of me, Hitler to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with who?”

Come by and leave a comment of support (or protest, all publicity is good).

* UPDATE – Oooops I guess something changed. I’ll let you know when I hear from those folks. Maybe they meant next Friday.

Since my readers don’t always stop by every day I figured I’d paste this poll on each post for a while to see what folks call themselves. This is the post the poll came from Who Are We?

… And that got me thinking. Who are the people who read my blog? I thought it might be fun to see what the cross-section looked like. If you feel like saying what you believe in, feel free to leave a comment and/or pick a label from the poll below. I think it might be interesting.

PT – This is awful. I’m negotiating tax and policy priorities with Cryin’ Chuck Schumer and Crypt Keeper Pelosi. And I don’t have anyone with the cajones to warn me when I’m being played.

VPP – Well, Mr. President I’ve always tried to give you good advice on policy.

PT – Nothing personal Mike, but you’d bring a slingshot to a gunfight and I need someone who’d tell me to bring an RPG.

VPP – Well I don’t think Steve is in the mood to help right now.

PT – Then get me someone who is outside the Washington circle. I need a man of the deplorables.

VPP – Are you looking for the lunatic fringe?

PT – No, someone without the tattoos and MRE stockpile. Or at least with a minimum of either.

VPP – Well how about that guy with the blog. What was it camera guy at Big Dipper something?

PT – You talking about photog at orionscoldfire.com?

VPP – Yeah, that guy.

PT – I threw him out last time. He always ends up pissing me off. But you know, his advice is usually pretty good. And he was from Brooklyn in the day. Alright get him down here. And hurry, Schumer is trying to get me to put in transgender bathrooms in the West Wing.

Scene 2 : West Wing, outside the Oval Office Tuesday 10 a.m., photog is knocking tentatively on the door, while a marine eyes him suspiciously

PT – Come in photog, and close the door behind you.

Photog (PHT) – Good morning Mr. President.

PT – Sit down and have a pastry. I have them flown in from an Italian Bakery in Queens. They’re the best.

PHT – Thank you sir but I’m not hungry.

PT – Don’t be such a stiff. You’re an Italian. You know nothing important gets decided unless bread is broken. Have a sfogliatella.

PHT – Sure, thanks.

PT – And have some coffee. It’s the best in the world. I have it cold brewed fresh every day.

PHT – Thanks I will.

PT – Alright, now that I’ve put you at ease, I need you to give me some information and maybe advice.

PHT – What do you want to know?

PT – What are the real people thinking?

PHT – Mr. President, they’re confused and worried. They’re seeing how useless the republicans in Congress are and they don’t know if you can make them do the right thing. Ryan and McConnell are either useless or working against you. McCain is actively siding with the Democrats and you’re mending fences with Chuck and Nancy. Plus the White House seems to be pushing for amnesty for illegal aliens and now you even seem to be reneging on the Paris Accord decision. A lot of people think you’ve lost your nerve or are being blackmailed by Mueller.

PT – What about you? Is that what you think?

PHT – I was willing to wait until you actually committed on some of these things. But it does seem like things are getting a bit confusing.

PT – Boy, I gotta say. You people are a bunch of rabbits. You can’t win a negotiation if you don’t even get the other side to come to the table. Don’t you think I know how the optics look when you’re courting the victim, I mean partner? You’ve got to speak their language a little to loosen things up. It’s not like I’m gonna let Cryin’ Chuck get what he wants. I just want him to think he got the best deal he could.

PHT – Well, I sure hope you’re right. I’d hate to go into the mid-terms without the country feeling like you can get the country moving in the right direction on immigration. After all you said there was gonna be a wall and so far there isn’t.

PT – Look I’m working all the angles and I’ll have a policy in place that will satisfy the anti-immigration agenda. But it’s going to take time. What I need to know is what can I do short-term to keep the natives from getting restless?

PHT – I’d say the best thing you can do is stomp on all of George Soros’s zombies. Go after Antifa and BLM and Sanctuary Cities with everything you’ve got. Make’em squeal and get their leaders in jail where they belong.

PT – That’s pretty strong medicine. It’s gonna be tough to get the FBI and the DOJ to work with me on that.

PHT – Well. You asked me what would get you some street cred with your voters. That’s what it’ll take.

PT – You know it’s funny. You never have any good news for me. Only lousy jobs to do. Why is that.

PHT – Because you say you want to be the greatest president. That means you have to save the United States from the cancer that’s been allowed to metastasize throughout the country for a century. Chemotherapy isn’t fun and no one smiles at the doctor when he starts the infusion.

PT – Man, are you grim. Look, thanks for the information. But do me a favor. Before you come back here next time, make sure you’re on your meds. Your brand of industrial strength pessimism is too much for even my self-confidence.

PHT – Well Mr. President, you know, “a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country.”

In New England, the end of summer is akin to how it must have felt to the pyramid-building slaves when their break period was about to end. A wonderful but horribly short respite was giving way to endless unimaginable agony. And this cycle would repeat itself until merciful death interceded. It’s just like that.

Summer is breathtakingly beautiful because of the contrast to what follows. It was less than 40◦F here this morning. On the second day of September. Still summer! And it goes rapidly downhill from here. Sure, we’ll have some warm days. Over eighty sometimes. But it’s just a cruel tease meant to highlight just how bad things will soon be. In the last decade or so New England has unleashed a new and terrifying alternative to winter storms. This is where a freezing rain or snow descends on us in October while the trees are still full of leaves. The trees in this condition hold onto much more snow and ice than normally and therefore huge branches and limbs can break off the trees. And that’s how millions of people end up without power for days or even weeks. So, what you have is houses without heat, some without a stove, some without water, which means without toilets. It’s such a joy. So, installing an emergency generator really isn’t an extreme decision. It’s sort of mandatory if you want to eat and drink and stay warm and go to the bathroom and, you know, live.

So, why am I writing about this? Well mostly to let you people living in other parts of the country know how lucky you are. Sure, they have hurricanes down south and earthquakes in the west and tornadoes in between but those only very infrequently effect you. Here we know as sure as night follows day that we will be wet, miserable and cold for eight months of the year, every year until we die or we have the good sense to get the hell out of this purgatorial region.

And why don’t I leave? Ah, I am bound with the strongest and most adamantine of chains, the grandmother/grandchildren bond. If a woman is possessed of an industrial strength maternal instinct (as, sadly, Camera Girl is) then no power in the ‘Verse short of a strategic thermonuclear strike will pry her away from these rugrats.

So here I am. The rollercoaster is at the top of the lift hill and the slow ratchet up is done. We’re staring down but the bottom has not yet dropped out of our stomachs. Here we go.

End of depressing preamble.

So, I’ve got this cool three-day weekend. Some relatives are coming up. I’m going out to take some seasonal photos and I’m bound to hang out with the grandsons too. Plus, the mystery of the disappearing quail needs to be answered. I’ve put out a game camera and hope to catch some photos of them gamboling around in the woods and thickets. And finally, I’m finishing up the available Cowboy Bebop discs from Netflix. I decided to try out another anime title (Ghost in the Shell 2.0) and it just arrived. All in all, it sounds like I’ll be having a very good time.

A very happy and relaxing Labor Day Holiday to all you good folks out there reading OCF. I’ll have more serious stuff right along soon but today just enjoy a good rest and do something fun.

Steve Bannon (SB) – For pity’s sake Mr. President, I was in the bathroom.

PT – What’s the problem Steve? Plumbing going bad? You should be careful about that. It could be contagious. Don’t need that around here.

SB – No Mr. President, everything is fine. How can I help you?

PT – That loser from the internet that was making fun of me with the schmoopy stuff.

SB – Oh, ahhhh, Photog from Orion’s Cold Fire?

PT – Yeah, that’s the loser. Boy that’s a dumb name. Anyway, I want him back here today. I want to know what the internet weirdos think about me.

SB – Well sir, he is a private citizen, and you did tell him to get lost last time.

PT – Blah, blah. He wants a story for his stupid blog. Just send a Humvee to his house and tell him to get his butt downs here pronto.

SB – Yes Mr. President. Can we at least send him first class?

PT – Hell no. Put him in a fighter jet and get him here within the hour. They have two seats right?

SB – I guess they do. I’ll get right on it.

Scene 2 (White House West Wing, two hours later)

PT – Well Photog, what took you so long?

Photog (PH) – Good to see you too Mr. President!

PT – Yeah, yeah, I love you too. Look I need information. Around here everyone is either scared of me or hates my guts. I need to know what the regular people are saying.

PH – Well the regular people think you’re the greatest troll who ever lived. We get the biggest kick out of all the stuff you say to the press, NATO and Schumer and we loved what you did to Comey.

PT – Well what about the fact that we haven’t repealed Obamacare or built the wall or cut taxes.

PH – Well they are getting annoyed about the wall but we figured the Obamacare thing and the tax cuts would be stalled because of the losers in the House and Senate.

PT – Well the wall thing is turning out to be a bigger problem than I thought. The Congress is full of spineless jellyfish. But I’m glad to hear they aren’t blaming me yet for the other two things.

PH – Mr. President, jellyfish are invertebrates. By definition they have no spine.

PT – Oh for pity’s sake. Isn’t there anyway for you to avoid being thrown out of here?

PH – Sorry, sorry. Anyway, if you want my advice, the thing for you to do is think of executive actions that help regular people and hurt the leftists. Go after the sanctuary cities, Antifa and states giving benefits to illegal aliens.

PT – We are already doing that stuff but the courts have been interfering.

PH – Then bring it to the Supreme Court.

PT – That’s a tricky thing. Kennedy is unreliable. He may vote with the other side. I have info that he will retire this summer so I’m holding off.

PH – Well don’t wait too long. Americans want results. Fire all those traitors in the FBI and NSA who keep leaking to the press. Oh, and bail on the Paris Accord. Climate Change is one of the biggest pain points you can hit your enemies with. Cancelling those things takes money out of their pockets and puts it back in ours.

PT – Well I said I’d make a decision this week.

PH – Do yourself a favor make the right one.

PT – Maybe you’re right.

PH – I’m always right. Never left.

PT – Alright, that’s enough. Get the hell out and take Acela back home. Riding on that piece of crap will teach you some humility. And if you see that loser Biden there tell him I found his peep hole in the bathroom and had it spackled over, the perv.